UPS Adds 200 Hybrid Electric Vehicles to Alternative Fuel Fleet

Centralina Stakeholder, UPS, announced in October it plans to add 200 new hybrid electric delivery trucks to the company’s growing alternative fuel and advanced technology fleet. The vehicles have the same 2-cylinder engine and E-GENTM chassis as the 125 vehicles UPS announced earlier this year.

Equipped with lithium ion batteries and a range extender engine, these trucks will deliver significant fuel economy equivalency gains, approximately four times the fuel economy of a gasoline powered vehicle. A cloud-based, real time telematics performance monitoring system provides feedback for energy monitoring and route efficiency. The trucks, manufactured by Workhorse Group, Inc., will be deployed beginning in January 2017 starting in Arizona, Texas, Nevada, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Florida, and, possibly in other states as well.

“The improvements in these new package cars came from real-world experience in our alternative fuel Rolling Laboratory, which earlier this year hit a 1 billion miles driven milestone,” said Mark Wallace, UPS senior vice president global engineering and sustainability. “We are committed to developing alternative fuel vehicles that lessen our impact on the environment and reliance on petroleum based fuels – that effort is helping to transform markets and communities.”

UPS operates one of the largest alternative fuel and advanced technology fleets in the U.S. In addition to hybrid electric vehicles, the company’s fleet includes all-electric, hydraulic hybrid, compressed natural gas (CNG), liquefied natural gas (LNG), propane and light-weight fuel-saving composite body vehicles. In addition to its use of alternative vehicles, UPS uses millions of gallons of lower carbon footprint renewable diesel and renewable natural gas (RNG) in its fleet each year.

Using its “Rolling Laboratory” approach, UPS deploys more than 7,200 low-emission vehicles and achieved its goal of driving 1 billion miles with the alternative fuel fleet in August 2016.